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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Great work by our ETE Treasurer, Jennifer (Theta Lambda, Clemson) quoted in Gerald Ensley's column in the Sunday Tallahassee Democrat! She volunteers one Saturday a month with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of North Florida to keep part of High Street free of litter. Thank you for your work, Jennifer, and for representing Alpha Chi Omega so well!

GERALD ENSLEY/Democrat The city's Adopt A Street program for volunteer groups to pick up litter has been renewed in 2010. The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of North Florida have been participating for six years, with monthly litter pickups along High Road between Tharpe Street and Old Bainbridge Road.

Nobody likes litter along the roads. And give Tallahasseeans credit: Many of them are willing to do something about it.

You saw that Wednesday evening at the Renaissance Center, where the city held a sign-up meeting for its renewed Adopt A Street program. More than 35 people showed up at Wednesday's meeting. And they represented a rainbow of civic groups and motivations.

There were teachers, such as Karen Metcalf of Cornerstone Learning Community, who want their students to learn community service. There were businessmen, such as Applebee's Restaurant manager Bill Schack, who want to be good neighbors. There were Masonic Lodge members, such as Melton Headley, who want to improve the Frenchtown community where they meet.

There were individuals who just want to make a difference.

[snip]

Hanson said Wednesday's meeting added 30 new groups to the 35 groups that were still active. She wants to find volunteer groups for the remainder of the 110 existing signed streets, then start adding more streets.

She expects to tap the many student, church and civic groups that participate in her clean-ups to volunteer for the Adopt A Street program – and she believes there is "lots of opportunity" to improve the appearance of the 6,700 streets and roads in Leon County.

"I would particularly like to see West Tennessee and all our corridors adopted, because that's where people come into town and we don't want them to look like a trash heap," Hanson said. "(Her organization draws) lots of high school and college groups and lots of groups with children. I have a perfect avenue and I'm going to make every effort I can to step it up."

Litter pickup programs, obviously, are meant to remove litter along roadsides. But as Tom Jackson, who oversees the county program, said, "I know if you clean (a road) today, it takes only one day for (litter) to be back."

So the real value of such programs is education and awareness, which, hopefully, lead to litter prevention. Florida Department of Transportation programs manager Steve Liner oversees the state Adopt A Highway program, which counts 1,200 groups covering 2,400 miles of state highways.

"The groups that go out there for three or four hours, especially in this hot sun, are going to think twice about littering," he said. "And the driving public will think twice because they see volunteers giving their time to keep a community free and clear of litter."

It does seem to work. The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of North Florida organization has participated in the city program for six years, picking up litter on High Road from Tharpe to Old Bainbridge. They do it the third Saturday of every month. Besides being good exercise, fun fellowship and a great way to "bond with the neighborhood," it's been effective.

"The (amount of litter) waxes and wanes, but we definitely see less than when we started," said Jennifer Butler, a member of the group.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Please save the date and plan to join us and the FSU Alpha Chi Omega collegians on Tuesday, October 12th at 5:30pm to celebrate Alpha Chi Omega's 125th Founders' Day. Beta Eta will provide dinner, a Thanksgiving-style buffet with turkey, stuffing and all the usual accompaniments. Yum!

After dinner, at 7pm, the chapter will hold its Annual Domestic Violence Vigil in the front yard. Support for survivors of domestic violence is Alpha Chi Omega's national philanthropy, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Friday, September 17, 2010

You know when you see a post marked SS that we are Supporting Sisters! We loved discovering a new video from Proctor Honda featuring their Sales Associate, Terri (Epsilon Zeta, Auburn) talking about her job. Enjoy!

Gymnast-turned-actress Maddy Curley spoke with IG this week about her recent projects, including a gymnastics-themed screenplay she hopes will get produced before the 2012 Olympics.

From the set of NBC's "The Event," gymnast-turned-actress Maddy Curley spoke with IG this week about her recent projects, ranging from parts in "The Office" and an unofficial "Footloose" remake to a gymnastics-themed screenplay she hopes will get produced before the 2012 Olympics.

Curley has enjoyed steady work in Hollywood since she earned a B.F.A. in Drama and International Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she competed in gymnastics from 2000-2004. She made her professional acting debut in 2006 with a co-starring role in "Stick It," Touchstone Pictures' gymnastics-themed film starring Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges.

Among Curley's more recent credits, she played a pivotal role in the two-part season finale of CBS's "Cold Case" last year, and recreated Kevin Bacon's classic dance-and-gymnastics scene for the unofficial "Footloose" remake that premiered in Los Angeles and New York this summer. She is currently shooting an episode of NBC's "The Event," a conspiracy-thriller series that is scheduled to debut on Sept. 20.

We share this as part of our mission toSupport Sisters. We're proud to know Perry (Beta Eta, FSU) makes a difference through her work atBig Bend Cares!"Big Bend Cares provides education and comprehensive support to people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS."

"In 1992, Alpha Chi Omega adopted domestic violence awareness as its national philanthropic cause. Since then, we’ve promoted education and prevention programs that help people understand and prevent the problem. We’ve also funded programs that assist and protect domestic violence victims and their children. And we’ve provided grants to domestic violence shelters and programs across the United States." from Alpha Chi Omega Foundation

In the Tallahassee-Thomasville area, we support Refuge House. Here are some of our programs:

We collect new undergarments, comfortable clothes and slippers for victims of sexual assault. When these women are seen at the hospital their own clothes are often kept for evidence. We provide Refuge House (our local domestic violence shelter) and their trained volunteers and SANE nurses (Sexual Assualt Nurse Educators) with enough clothes and other items to take care of everyone they see all year, through the generosity of our members and through grants we received from Alumnae Panhellenic of Tallahassee (twice now, in 2005 and 2008).

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Epsilon Tau Epsilon member Britain Dwyre (Beta Eta, FSU) served as a Convention reporter at Alpha Chi Omega's National Convention in July, and as such, she'll appear in the next issue of The Lyre magazine. Pretty exciting! A separate article that she wrote appeared on the Alpha Chi Omega blog, and in case you didn't see it, here is a link and an excerpt:

Alpha Chi Omega Convention 2010, In My Words

by Britain Dwyre(Beta Eta, Florida State University)

According to Webster’s dictionary a Convention is a large meeting or conference, esp. of members of particular profession. While this definition works, I argue that Alpha Chi Omega Convention is SO much more. Convention to me is five days to reconnect with sisters and friends and a time to make new connections! It is a time to celebrate, to learn, and to shop. Convention is a time to stay up late and wake up early, and to do as much in between the prior as possible. Convention is the most fun you will have with 800+ of your sisters, that only happens every two years.

In the weeks leading up to convention many emails, tweets, and Facebook messages are sent coordinating meetings, presentations and reunions. Packings lists are made, analyzed and amended. Blog posts are done sharing past conventions, offering wardrobe advice and showing support for the Star Booth. Pre-Convention shopping takes place for: reunion night dinner decorations, Stars honoring those Alpha Chis who have impacted us, last minutes wardrobe “essentials” for convention, etc. After all of this is complete I had a suitcase weighing 49.5 pounds (*sigh* I am under the Delta imposed limit). I am ready for convention.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Are you Life Loyal? This scan from a recent copy of The Lyre explains the process (click on the picture to see it full size):

Our sisterhood broke all the benchmarks set with over 2450 Life Loyal members in the first two years of the program. Changing to this system allows Headquarters to prepare fantastic new programs for our collegians such as the four-year member experience (which Beta Eta, our local collegiate chapter, is piloting this semester).